Truckee River Rafting, Tahoe City

TOTAL RIP-OFF. Bring your own $15 raft. When you get to River Ranch, there's a public bus that will take you back, it runs every half-hour for $1.75 Search the web for "FREE Truckee River Rafting" for more info.

WAY too many people floating down the river ALL DAY. At any given time, you have 5-30 other rafts around you... all crammed with 8 people each and kids screaming, splashing, college students drinking and being loud. I thought it would be kinda serene and quiet to just float down. Too many people! Oh, and the cost of $35 per person no matter whether you have 2 in a raft or 8, they charge per person, not per raft. A family of 5 ends up spending almost $200 bucks! Cheaper to go buy your own damn raft and float down it! I never thought we'd be on a river in traffic!! I left the traffic in So Cal so I could enjoy the lush beauty of the lakes and rivers. And this was a Wed on an off weekend! I think I would wait until after Labor Day if there is still enough water in the river..... I guess it just wasn't what I expected.

We took a $30 raft and inner tubes for the 4th of July this year and last. We took one car this year, floated to River Ranch, then walked back on the riverside bike path. There's plenty of parallel parking along the river for free and there's also a bus for $1.75 that runs every hour from River Ranch back up to Tahoe City, but we thought the walk was nicer. Last year we had two cars, which was more convenient, but the walk was nice. There's a few logs and rock to avoid, so if you're inner tubing a kayak oar isn't a bad idea. It's mostly super slow, lazy and relaxing. Alcohol is banned from the riverbanks and river, but I don't know how well it's enforced. I did see one cop near Tahoe City on the river bank checking rafters out though actually. The last 40 - 50 feet of the run from Tahoe City to River Ranch is very rocky and swift, so I really recommend getting out just before the wood cabin on the highway side of the river. The bike path goes up a hill just before this stretch and has a wood railing along it. Great trip, so much fun, and the Lake Tahoe fireworks are awesome!

I made reservations over the phone. I had to cancel the morning of due to a family emergency. The company said they could not refund my money because they have a 24 hr refund policy that they inform all customers about. This is a LIE!! They never told us about such a policy when we made reservations. I challenged it with wells fargo credit card company. And Truckee River Rafting had the nerve to write a full letter that all customers are "fully informed" of they cancellation policy. I guess this is becoming a trend with this company. We go here every year for 6 years. But I will never go back. They care more about their MONEY than their CUSTOMERS. I am still waiting to hear back from my bank. They also claimed they were saving rafts, and employees for us. What a joke. It was July 4th weekend, they could have easily filled our spot with another set of rafters. It is a mad house there and they run as many people through as they can in any given day. I will be telling all my friends in the area to never return.

My first experience with Truckee River Rafting was not great - the raft boat was pretty run down and we spent very long time waiting for the shuttle back. Since then their prices also increased a lot. However, since our kids love rafting and there were not too many alternatives in the area we made a reservation (for the same day), for last Sunday afternoon. Then we went hiking to eagle lake, promising the kids a raft after the hike. However one of the girls got sick during the hike taking forever to walk back down. A couple of hours before the raft time I figured we would not make it on time and called to cancel. They said that they have a 24h cancellation policy and I'll have to pay the full amount. Of course, they did not mention that when I made the reservation... They claimed they said that, which was just a lie! It was a busy weekend in Tahoe and they still had time to rent my boat to someone else but that did nit matter. A long argument went nowhere and my CC was charged $170, and I was left with a sour feeling, from a business that obviously cares much more about $$ than customer satisfaction.

The experience of rafting was fun and all, but the family atmosphere can be lost when there are drunk college aged kids floating around. This place would be better if the staff disallowed alcohol so the younger aged would not be badly influenced. -This was at July 1 2007, so things could have changed